In first grade, my class did a project where we had to find a figure in history we admired and then dress up as that person and give a short monologue. My mom helped me find a list of fifty or so historical people I could talk about and then let me choose. Not surprisingly, I chose the suffragist Susan B. Anthony. In fact, Anthony is probably the person to first inspire me to think about women’s equality and gender issues.

Susan B. Anthony circa 1855

To be fair, she was probably one of the first women to make a lot of people think about gender equality, at least in terms of voting. Not only was she an amazing suffragist, but she was also an abolitionist. She is also famous for establishing the Women’s New York State Temperance Society in 1852 with Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Though you probably already know her story, here are 10 facts you may not have heard:

Anthony wasn’t present at the 1848 Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention because she was teaching school

She was an abolitionist before she was a suffragist

For her 80th birthday she partied at the White House

She was the first woman to get her face on a US coin

She was not a traditional Christian

She was good friends with Frederick Douglass

She was German of descent but one of her grandfathers fought in the Revolutionary War

She was against abortion, but put the blame on pressuring men rather than the women seeking abortions

She might have had (probably had) some lady loves

A Navy ship was named after her and it holds the world record for its passengers not dying when it sank

I grew up with Georgia O’Keeffe as a constant art inspiration. In elementary school, I created my own interpretations of her flower paintings. Later, in middle school I recreated some of her abstracts with tiles to create massive mosaics. By far my favorite O’Keeffe paintings, however, are her New Mexico landscapes. I was born and raised in New Mexico, and I can vouch that her paintings capture both the spirit and beauty of this place.

In any case, she is a wonderful painter worth learning about and checking out. Those of you who are really inspired should visit the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico and tour Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu to really experience that land that so inspired her. It will definitely inspire you, too!

A belated Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate this holiday (which is probably most of you because most of my readers are from the US)! It’s a holiday I enjoy because I have time off from school, but it’s not a perfect holiday by any means. Not only does it have a gory past, but the holiday is still, for most households, a scene straight out of the sixties: the women cook in the kitchen while the men relax. I would give you a more vivid analysis of this too-common scene, but Linda Lowen does an excellent job of this so I’ll send you over to look at hers instead.

Personally, I had a very untraditional Thanksgiving; because I didn’t want to fly home for such a short break, I ended up staying in my dorm room and so yesterday I slept in, made a statue of Princess Leia out of snow, cooked eggplant pasta with my girlfriend, and watched Gilmore Girls for nostalgia’s sake. What did you do for Thanksgiving?

Anyway, for all of the women who spent their Thanksgiving in the kitchen with their hands inside a turkey’s ass and resenting the guys just a little, here’s a true story about a women who never took any shit from any man.

What do sword fighting, opera singing, the 1600s, cross-dressing, nunnery heists, and avoiding death sentences (by fire) have to do with each other? Julie D’Aubigny, or “La Maupin,” as she is nicknamed, was a master of them all.

Honestly, not too much is known about her except that no one knew what to do with her. Born in 1670, Julie D’Aubigny was born into a wealthy life and taught how to ride horses and handle a sword by her father, who was fairly badass himself because he trained pages for King Louis the XIV. She quickly became too much for him to handle, though, when at the age of 16 she slept with his boss. After that, she was married off to some Maupin guy who lived in the colonies. D’Aubigny didn’t go off to live with him, though. Instead, she galavanted around France doing all kinds of extraordinarily naughty things. For a full and entertaining biography, read all about her here, but in case you are pressed for time I’ll give you the highlights:

She gave singing and fencing demonstrations in the streets, challenging crowd members to duel, singing humiliating songs about those challenged, then easily defeating them. She wore men’s clothing but once, upon being accused of being a man, opened up her underthings so the crowd could judge her sex for themselves.

She became an incredible opera singer and had an almost photographic memory, making her a very fast learner.

She had flings with lots of women, but with one woman in particular was thrown into a nunnery by her horrified parents. D’Aubigny followed her to this nunnery, joined it, stole the body of a recently-dead nun to put in her lover’s bed, and set the room on fire so that they could easily escape together. For this, she was charged as a man with body-snatching, kidnapping, and arson, the penalty for which was death by fire, but she escaped to Paris instead.

In 1695, she kissed a woman at a society ball and was consequently challenged to a duel by three outraged noblemen; she of course beat them all.

I have loved Frida Kahlo for a very long time; when I was twelve, I even dressed up as Frida for Halloween. But it wasn’t until I read The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (it’s a great book, you should read it!) that I became obsessed.

She is, of course, most famous for being an incredible painter and for being married to the equally-famous muralist Diego Rivera. Personally, having seen both of their art in real life, I must say that Frida’s work is my favorite. Then again, I am biased because I love her life’s story as much as I love her work.

There are so many things to admire about Frida Kahlo. The majority of her paintings were self portraits, a sort of visual diary to cope with the traumas in her life. She experienced a lot of pain: when she was six she contracted polio, which left her with a lifelong limp; when she was 18, she was in a bus crash in which she was impaled by a steel handrail; had several miscarriages as a result of the bus accident; was cheated on by her husband, Diego Rivera, with her sister Cristina; and dealt with back pain for her whole life.

Despite her pain, or perhaps because of it, she had an incredible free spirit and ideas about beauty. I admire her pride in her untrimmed facial hair and devotion to leading an independent life. Though being married to Diego Rivera (twice), they lived in separate but connected homes. Both had various affairs; Frida had affairs with both women and men, including Leon Trotsky who stayed at her house for a time while in exile.

In any case, her life is fascinating and I encourage you to read more about her (or watch a documentary about her). And in the meantime, you should check out more of her work:

Without Hope, 1945 by Frida Kahlo, painted during the time when she had no appetite due to various operations and was force fed food.

Frida Kahlo, Self Portrait Along the Boarder Line Between Mexico and the United States, 1932. This is one of my favorites.

Frida Kahlo, Roots, 1943.

Frida Kahlo, Two Nudes in a Forest, 1939. This painting was originally titled “The Earth Itself” and was a gift to a lover, actress Dolores Del Rio.

In 1960, Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the first Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and of any country in the world! However, she was elected only after her husband was assassinated. Possibly, she was elected because she was seen as an extension of her husband. Nevertheless, she was popular and was reelected PM in the 1970s and 1990s.

Aquino’s story is extra badass though. Corazon Aquino’s husband was a politician in opposition to authoritarian head of state Ferdinand E. Marcos, and the assassination of Aquino’s husband really pissed people off.

Later, Marcos (weirdly) wants to hold a presidential election, so Corazon Aquino runs in opposition to Marcos. Offcially, of course, Marcos won, but the people were outraged and charged Marcos with voting fraud and then Philippine Military Officials called Marcos out as the authoritarian ass he was. They then made Marcos president of his followers and Aquino president of hers, but then Marcos fled the country (good choice, Marco) and Aquino became the president of the Philippines. As president, she created a new constitution that was ratified in 1987. While she made a lot of positive changes in the Philippines there were some problems she failed to address, specifically mass poverty, and was succeeded by her former defense secretary, Fidel Ramos.

Also, while I was researching these two women I came upon this article that talks about how many female heads of state have come out of South and Southeast Asia and why. It’s an interesting read and I encourage you to check it out, but basically it theorizes that women often become heads of state due to backlashed against severe patriarchal control. It also says that once these women are in power, though, it is difficult for them to gain authority for the same reason they were put in charge. It’s an interesting theory, though I wonder if that is changing as time progresses. I suppose we shall see.

If you read the post I just posted, I talked about how my awareness of a need for feminism grew as I got older and really blossomed in high school when I conned a bunch of people into being in a feminism club with me. In said club, we watched lots of movies that focused on women. By far my favorite documentary was Half The Sky. It completely changed my perspective on the world and my future. It is also a book.

The Half the Sky movement focuses on problems that women face all over the world, and the book and documentary feature some incredibly inspiring women, like Edna Adan. You should really take my word for it and go rent it/buy it right now, in book or film form, but in the watch the trailer; it just might change your life.

Throughout my life, I’ve felt connected connected to women. When I was little, that showed up as a refusal to read books with male main characters and a getting in trouble constantly for physically fighting with boys because I wanted to prove that I was just as strong as they were.

That was long before I knew what feminism was, what the patriarchy was, how men (and usually, old white men) control our politics and media and corporations. But as I grew older, I learned. I was told that I could be anything I wanted to be; I was also told to be quiet, proper, ladylike. In the classroom I was valued for my brains but outside I was judged on my body, my femininity, my beauty. I also learned that though my opportunities were limited by my gender, I learned that there were other women with even fewer opportunities based on their race, class, nationality, sexuality, ability, and personal situations.

I’m ashamed to say that it wasn’t until high school that I really thought about feminism and what it meant. I knew the basics, of course, and it made me angry, but…I don’t know, I must have been preoccupied with other preteen dilemmas. Thankfully, one day, I snapped. I got angry, really angry, about the way the world thinks about women. I had already started an environmental club at my school, but it slowly evolved into a human rights club and then a women’s rights club because most of the other members were my friends who joined my club to support me and I was the president and all I wanted to do was rage about feminism and so that’s what we did. We got educated about an issue near and dear to my heart.

In my club we often watched videos like this one, and then read the comments and a) weeped/raged/lost faith in humanity/critically deconstructed every anti-feminist comment. We also watched documentaries like Half The Sky.

It shouldn’t surprise you that now I’m attending a women’s college and double-majoring in gender studies and political theory. I am still very passionate about making the world a better place by empowering women and by learning about the issues that affect women the most. And I feel like learning about empowering, inspiring women is beneficial in that pursuit, so feel free to keep reading my other blog posts and have a nice day!